Panther
The Panther (its ordnance designation being Sd.Kfz. 171, and until 1944 being designated Panzerkampfwagen V Panther) was a German medium tank that saw extensive service in the later half of World War Two. History Work on a replacement tank for the Panzer III and Panzer IV already began in 1938. This new series of tanks were designated as the VK 20.01. The letters ‘VK’ are an abbreviation for ‘Vollketten’ (fully tracked), the 20 followed for the weight class in tons, and the 01 for the first model in the series. The first contract for a detailed design was given to Daimler-Benz. In October 1939, Daimler-Benz began to design their own tank after receiving permission to prepare designs without outside interference. At the begininng of the war in September 1939, the firm of Krupp embarked on designing an improved Pz. Kpfw. IV. This project was cancelled in May 1940 and Krupp began detailed designs on a new tank in the 20 ton class. Due to engineers at both Daimler-Benz and Krupp favoring leaf spring suspension and being opposed to torsion bar suspension the firm of MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg – Machine Works of Augsburg and Nürnberg) was pulled into the competition to design a new tank in the 20 ton class with torsion bar suspension. By November 1941, designs for new tanks in the 20 ton class had almost been completed. During operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, that started on Sunday, 22 June 1941, German forces would come to encounter two new Soviet tanks, the medium T-34 and the heavy KV-1, for the first time. A special Panzerkommission was sent to the front in order to obtain first hand knowledge and to study captured examples. In December 1941, the decision was made to abandon the previous designs and create new tanks in the 30 ton class. This was the start of the VK 30.01. As Krupp was dropped from the competition leaving both Daimler-Benz and MAN to come up with proposal for the new tank. In March 1942 the politicians decided in favor of the proposal by Daimler-Benz. However, a special comission which had been formed to review both designs ruled in favor of the proposal by MAN in May 1942. That same month Hitler agreed with the recommendation and the Panther design from MAN was selected for series production. The Daimler-Benz design was essentially a slightly modified T-34, and this was deemed unsuitable for purpose, given the inability of Germany to match Russian tank production, so the MAN design was instead approved. Initially designed to weigh around 35 tons, Adolf Hitler's insistence at increasing its armor protection pushed up the weight at 45 tons; despite this, with the same Maybach HL230 of the Tiger heavy tank, the Panther would prove to have better maneuverability, while the superlative KwK 42 L/70 75 mm gun gifted it with excellent firepower. When the decision was taken to go ahead with the VK 30.02 (MAN), series production would start at the MAN factory in November 1942. To increase deliveries of the new tank Daimler-Benz, Maschinenfabrik-Niedersachsen-Hanover (MNH) and Henschel became involved. The first production model was designated as the Ausf. D, the reason for this contradiction remains unknown. Over the course of its production run all of the modifications made to the Ausf. D by DEMAG were incorperated. By September 1943, some 850 exampels of the Ausf. D had been completed. The combat debut of the Panther during Operation Zitadelle ''proved to be a major dissapointment for the German Army. During the first few days of fighting, the number of operational tanks had dropped considerably. Contributing to these heavy losses was the lack of proper training for the units operating the new tank, poor tactical usage of the tank by commanders, heavy in-depth Russian minefields, powerfull anti-tank defencess, and the tank being an untested design with numerous mechanical deficiencies at this stage. During and after the failed offensive at Kursk, production of the Panther would continue at an ever increasing output. Known faults could only be corrected at the factory, although over time most of the problems with the tank were eliminated. By 1944, the Panther had developed from the fault-ridden tank of the ''Panzerwaffe to a formiddable battle tank much appreciated by its crews. When the production of the Ausf. A began in August 1943 one of the few recognizable changes was the shape of the turret which had been simplefied for ease of manufacture. Other changes included a lower, more ballistically resistant, cast-steel cupola with seven hooded periscopes arranged around its exterior circumference. Another change was a ball-type mounting for the bow MG 34. As production began to ramp up the number of Panthers in the field began to show a considerable increase. By July 1944, some 2200 Panther Ausf. A had been completed. Production would once again switch to an improved model in March 1944 with the introduction of the Ausf. G which would remain in production until the end of the war. While the turret remained unchanged to that of the Ausf. A, this new model would use a newly improived chassis that incorperated production simplifications as wel las lessons learned from the cancelled Panther II. The Ausf. G chassis was uparmored in some areas and thinned in other areas to maintain the vehicles weight. Captured German indicated that almost 3000 Panther Ausf. G tanks made it across the assembly lines before production ceased, making it the most numerous model of the Panther build. Key external spotting features for the Ausf. G tank chassis included, large tapering superstructure plates on the sides of the vehicle's hull, wehich replaced the two-piece hull superstructure plates of the previous models. On the glacis plate, the driver's direct-vision visor port and his two overhead fixed periscopes, were done away with and replaced with a single overhead 360-degree rotating and tilting periscope. A newly designed and reinforced mantlet, called a 'chin' due to the pronounced chin on its bottom portion was introduced in September 1944. However, this conversion was gradual and resulted in many Panthers still being assembeld with the rounded mantlet through to the end of the war. The Soviet designers answered to this by turning to their improved T-34/85 and then to the IS heavy tanks, which could engage Panther and Tigers on more equal terms. Allied response was much slower, thanks to a sense of complacency compounded by the false belief that the Panther wouldn't be produced en masse. On the Western Front most of the Allied tanks were challenged by the German tank, with only the British Sherman Firefly''' and the American M36 Jackson tank destroyer being capable of penetrating the Panther's frontal armour at range; its side and rear armour was comparatively thin, however, and presented an easier target for Allied tanks. However, the real problem of the Panther was one of numbers; despite being the third most produced German tank design during the war (with some 6,000 units of all kinds), and sprouting derivatives like the fearsome Jagdpanther tank destroyer, it was never produced in numbers high enough, and it never replaced the less advanced but cheaper Panzer IV. Its inferior opponents, therefore, could bring their numbers to bear, with any Allied or Soviet tank having plenty of replacements available, while any Panther lost was irreplaceable. The outcome of the war was decided by industrial might which gave both the Western Allies and the Soviets the ability to produce the vast amounts of equipment and material to wage a global war, and would result in the final encirclement of the Third Reich from three sides from 1944 onwards. The increasingly fast loss of the initiative and strategic capability to react made all offensive ambitions of the Wehrmacht impossble. Forced to defend, this meant that the Panzerwaffe with potent machines such as the Panther ultimately lost the tactical and operational advantage. To what extent the Panther with its undeniable quality influenced post-war tank design is difficult to judge. Even with its capabilities acknowledged, elsewhere each nation went its own way to reach or exceed the parameters. This became apparent with tanks like the Centurion, the M26 Pershing, and the T-44. In Girls und Panzer Kuromorimine Girls Academy has several Panthers in its arsenal. During the Tournament's Finals, Kuromorimine employed several Panthers as the backbone of its force, with the heavier vehicles being the ones supposed to bring the opponents down; however, thanks to Ooarai Girls Academy's unorthodox tactics, this often forced them to engage in unfavourable tactical conditions. Unsurprisingly, this caused the Panthers to take a good share of the losses at the hand of Ooarai's tanks, with some being taken out by skilled marksmanship (in the case of Miho Nishizumi's Panzer IV) or by superior firepower (as proved by Ooarai's Tiger (P)). A Panther commanded by the Panther Commander was one of the tanks that was tricked by Turtle Team's Hetzer pulling up to their encirclement line, with the Panther Commander not noticing it until it pulled up between two of her fellow tanks. When she tried to direct tanks to engage the small tank destroyer, they came under heavy fire from Ooarai on the high ground. The subsequent chaos led her to pull the entire left flank back in an to regroup and form another defensive line, but this proved to be in vain as they were unable to prevent Ooarai's team from breaking out of the encirclement. '''Der Film Two Panthers were part of the Kuromorimine detachment sent to reinforce the Ooarai Compound Team. One was commanded by the Jagdpanther Commander, while the other was commanded by Koume Akaboshi. Both were some of the first tanks to be taken out relatively early in the match when both got knocked out by a shell fired by the Karl-Gerät 040. More about the Panther *Panther *Panther specifications *Panther ausf. G in the official anime (japanese) Gallery Category:Tanks Category:German Tanks Category:Medium Tanks Category:Kuromorimine Girls' High School Category:Selection University Category:Yogurt High School Girls' Academy Category:BC Freedom Girls' High School Category:Multi-Version Tanks Category:TemporaryCategory